The Passing of a Legend
by TheFalsePoet
Summary: One shot of the end of an era.


**I warn you, I haven't exactly been in the best mood, and I am currently mildly drunk. Just moved to a Santa Barbara and do not know a single person down here. heh... I kinda miss actual human contact. As you can probably tell from this story, i was not really in the right frame of mind to continue work on my other stories, but they are in progress, really, don't give up on me completely.**

**Ohh, and i don't own the characters at all.**

**---  
**

Aang received a letter today. It was a rare occasion that this simple phenomenon of communication happened lately. Of course there were always the messages of where he was needed, or who wanted him to bless what and when, but a letter he actually cared about was hard to find. It was from Aang's grandson Kuzon and his wife. They had been traveling the world and living nomadically for the past four years. On the occasion of finding a statue of the Avatar, or encountering people that claim to have met the Avatar, Kuzon pulls out a quill and writes to his grandfather, relating how life is around the world, or the latest news on his young daughter, the youngest of Aang's eighteen great-grandchildren, named after her late great-grandmother. The girl was showing signs of being a great bender in her own right, just like her parents before her, and her grandparents before them. The Air nation was on its way to returning to prominence in the world, though still many generations from returning to the former numbers. The latest letter, the one that arrived today, was in the same fashion as the others they had sent in the past few years.

_Dear Aang,_

_The family and I are presently passing through the desert of Won Shi Tong, and happened upon a statue of you today. Apparently you had come through here some seventy years ago, and left an impression upon one of the sand benders in the area. As an apology for some trespass against you, he created a formation in your honor. It even has a life sized likeness of Appa beside it. Though the artist is no longer alive, the people of the region of since kept it preserved as an artifact and tourist attraction.  
_

_We are all doing quite well. You'd be proud of our little airhead, as gran-gran used to call her. Two years old and she's already flying almost as well as myself. Of course, that's not really saying much, as I still have a tendency to run into cliffs and trees, but it's impressive for her age at the very least._

_Hope all is going well with you at the Eastern Air Temple. We shall be through to see you in about a month, as we intend to stop by the Fire Nation to visit Iroh on the way. It'd be nice to see how he's doing since becoming Fire Lord last spring. If you haven't heard, his mother passed only a couple months ago as well. We sent our condolences as soon as we learned of the lady's passing, but felt it only right to stop by and see the man that has been like an uncle to myself for all my life._

_We also stopped by Kyoshi Island to visit Lily's family. Her grandmother, Koko, asked us to tell you that she says "hi, Aangy". She seems a bit loopy to me, but then Lily's not the most sane woman out there either, and I love her because of it, so I guess is shouldn't think it a bad thing._

_Anyways, I hope this letter finds you in good health, and with any luck and the proper air currents we shall see you in about a month._

_With love,_

_Kuzon_

Of all the people Aang had met on his journey the year of his return, Koko was the last one remaining walking the earth. It seemed ironic to Aang that she had even become family, albeit slightly distant. His wife, his friends, in a sense his connection to the three nations, slowly crumbled over the past five years. Sokka was first, but in retrospect, they all saw it coming. He was eighty-six years old, and was the only casualty of a catastrophic chemistry experiment. It was almost enough to laugh about it. In fact, Toph had to struggle to hold back the giggling as well as the tears when she received the news. Suki passed shortly after. A broken heart, a lost will. It was the same story as ever. Even The Duke couldn't hold on. He had actually died a few years back trying to quell an uprising. Next came the passing of Zuko just a year and a half ago. He died in his sleep. Physicians say it was a bad heart. Katara felt guilty about it for a while. She claimed she didn't work hard enough saving his heart that day ages ago when they went up against Azula to win the throne. She managed to hold on to life for a while after his passing, though. She was fighting every morning to try and ease her son into his new position as best she could. It was three months ago when she went to bed in her room in the palace and never woke up.

The last one to pass on was the most important to the Avatar, though. He wasn't supposed to play favorites, but it's hard not to when you spend every night in the same bed as the same person for sixty-five years. The greatest earthbender in the world always promised that she'd be the one that outlived the Avatar, but it turned out to be the only bet she would lose in her life. She died on a mission to the Earth Kingdom with Aang on Avatar business only a month ago. She would have killed Aang if he said she was in no condition to help, but it killed her to do so, instead. After that Aang left the Southern Air Temple where he had lived with his ever-expanding family as a patriarch, guru and elder, but above all a caring father, grandfather and great-grandfather to the growing flock of airbenders. He had come here to the Eastern Air Temple to seek solitude and to meditate upon the life he had led.

Aang, finished reading the letter, moves to his bed. It's cold, and it's lonely. The bed is three sizes too large for his slender form, and five times too soft after becoming accustomed to sleeping on a mattress that was scarcely softer than the rock that his wife bent. He reflected on his love for his family, and on his love for his friends, and his love for the people of the world, and he closed his eyes to fall into a sleep he would never arise from.


End file.
